Activists celebrate Botswana’s transgender court victory

GABARONE (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

A Botswana transgender man has won a 10-year battle to be legally recognized as male in a landmark ruling that could boost minority rights in the conservative nation.

Botswana High Court last week ordered the government to change the gender marker on the man’s identity card from female to male to respect his constitutional rights.

“This is an immense relief,” the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said in a statement.

“I am hopeful that other persons who find themselves in a similar situation will be dealt with in a more respectful manner when they apply for new identity cards.”

Justice Godfrey Nthomiwa said in his judgment that the government had violated the plaintiff’s rights to dignity, privacy, freedom of expression, equality and freedom from discrimination and inhumane and degrading treatment.

Experts say up to 1 percent of the world’s population is transgender – men and women who feel they have been born with the wrong body and the wrong gender.